Busy twilight years

1945

In September, a new road was made on the dam bank, and the old one closed, to make room for a new Frame House.
In October, there was a great scarcity of yarns and piece goods, and few beetling engines were going in Upperlands, and none at Moneycarrie or Mullamore.

In December, Mr Hilton who had been our dyer for many years went to live in Portstewart.

1946

On January 17, my
grandson Blake was killed in a military training accident, shortly after being
given command of a platoon. One of his
men had caught a grenade in his belt buckle, and Blake died after leaping
forward to save the soldier.

In March, our US agent JG
Robinson was here for a week. It was his first visit. He made the trip by air,
about 12 hours each way.

On March 28, my son Brian
left for South America where he had a most successful trip. It was the first
time we sent anyone to South America.

As of April, the building
of large new Frame House was nearly complete. The new frames and cans had been
delivered but the house was not quite ready.

As of July 4, the dams
had been nearly empty for months. On
this day the long drought ended and we had a big flood, but as only a part of
the sluices had been opened, much of the water was lost.

On August 20, our Toronto agent Arthur King came here for four days.

On August 22, my son Willie went to Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

In September, a Spooner
heater was being put in house under the new Brown Room. It cost over £2,400. The Green (but not the
factory or Dundee Mangles) was off on Saturdays and Mondays.

On November 23, my namesake
Harry Clark, the last member of the old Manchester firm of Walter Clark which
acted as our agents for 60 years, died.

1947

January was the coldest
month for 67 years. England was divided
into two parts between Liverpool and the Humber.

On February 1, we had to
cope with a terrible coal shortage. We were notified that our coal allocation
of 82 tons weekly would be reduced to 51-1/2 so we are only working 3 or 4 days
weekly. We had already reduced the daily
coal consumption from 16-1/2 to 13 tons, due to my son Tom's clever ideas. One was to cut steam pressure for process
work to 50 lbs instead of 100 lbs. He also devised a new system for providing
hot water everywhere.

A reduced time of 45
hours per week was started in our weaving factory early January and it was
introduced for the Green and carpenters at the end of January.

As of February 1, the new
Frame House was nearly roofed. But demand in the US is falling seriously. Owing
to the coal shortage we decided to close the factory and the Lapping Room for a
week. The beetles were also put on part time.

My son Harry Clark
presented a report on the weaving factory after six months back under his
management. The average daily number of looms working was up from 140 to
320. Some 130 learners were taken on.
Cloth sales for the six months – at 86,341 – were the highest on record. As of
January 31, the factory stock was 19,000 bundles. There was no cotton.

As of February 22, the
awful weather was continuing. A goods train was snowed up for 13 days in
Yorkshire. Industry was paralysed in Great Britain. Scores of works closed owing to coal
shortage. Thousands of cattle and tens
of thousands of sheep were lost owing to the great snow storm in Britain and
Ireland. Many roads in Ulster were
entirely blocked by snow. It was impossible to go from Coleraine to Portrush or
Portstewart and all mountain roads closed. Ballycastle was isolated for three days.

On March 16, a great thaw
started. In England, some 40 square miles of the Fens were under water.

In April, it was clear
that the sellers’ market was disappearing.
Unfortunately, we had huge stocks here and had bought over £800,000
worth.

As of May, we had the
seat for the new boiler all ready and the steam pipes changed.

On June 28, William
Pritchard died. He had been our head sample maker for 45 years.

In June, I noted that the
Moneycarrie engines have idle or a long time, and the Mullamore ones for several years.

In July, there was a
great financial crisis. The price of government stocks crashed, with 3-1/2 % War Loan falling
from 108 to 102. Old Consolidated fell
from 99 to 80. All stocks and shares
down very seriously.

On August 18, we sent Mr
Hurst on a six-month trip to Central and South America.

On August 22, there was a
further great financial crisis, with British
imports exceeding exports by £700 million
monthly and the American Loan almost used up.

On August 28, H.E. Walker
died. He had represented us in Vancouver for over 40 years. We appointed AM
Thomson in his place.

As of August, which was a
very hot month, we were only working the Green on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays.

On September 3, owing the
coal strike and shortage of dollars, the stock
markets crashed. Imperial Tobaccos down from £8 to under £5, and similar
drops in all other shares.

On September 4, my son Tom
sailed on the Queen Mary for New York
and Canada. He found business very bad
in Canada, as the Canadians are buying a Cotton & Hair Cloth at 40 ¾ cents,
compared with the lowest price at which our 1331 can be landed, which is 58
cents.

In mid-September, our new
Penman boiler arrived. It weighed 38 tons and as it would not go under the
Queen’s Bridge, it had to be brought by the Great Northern Railway, via
Portadown and Antrim.

There was now an extreme
scarcity of linen and cotton goods and we were only able to run the Green about
four days a week, and operate about half the beetling engines. None were
working at Moneycarrie. In the weaving factory, we built a wall about six
perches long, along the river.

In mid-September our
London agent A.E. Davey died and we appointed his son in his place.

On October 1, John Given
the loftman was moved from his old job to finishing shrunk ducks under Mr
Francey. Mr Hanna was appointed in his
place and made a vast improvement in the turn-off and finish. Beetlers that were heavily in debt in Given’s
time are now earning big pay every week.

1948

On January 18, a new
"turnover" filter was ordered at a cost of £4,000 plus £130 for extras. A roof
for the Filter House was ordered from Musgrave and Company.

In January, as an
addition to the weaving factory,we
decided to build a new wing, about 100 feet wide, on the north side. Our
non-crush finish on rayons was approved by the Board of Trade and we started to
make these goods in quantity.

My grandson Wallace Clark started to serve his time in the weaving factory.

My great-nephew Aubrey, after returning from the army, began the final stage of his apprenticeship.

On February 9, we had the
worst gale since 1894. It blew down
scores of trees about Upperlands, took the corrugated iron roof off the
Recreation Hall and stripped many other roofs.

Also in February, a big
fraud was discovered. It was found out that the old head loftman and several
others were stealing quantities of linen.

On February 29, there was
a serious fire in Ampertaine, the house where I grew up. Half of Upperlands
arrived on the scene to carry furniture out.

As of April, huge
business was being done in the departments run by my sons Willie and Brian. But
it was clear that shrunk ducks have been entirely cut out by a new product. Our
Finnish agent, Johnny Ahlmann, was here this month.

In May, most of the walls
of the new wing of the factory were completed.

Also in May, JP Dumares died. He was buyer for Fisher's of Montreal and a very special friend of ours.

Also in May, it was
calculated that our stock and commitments amounted to over £1m. At this time
the US trade was practically dead for all goods. I think we have bought too
heavily for all markets, and it was a great mistake to do so at the peak of the
market when prices were about five times their pre-war levels.

On May 6, WJ Hemphill was killed in an accident at the Jubilee beetling engines.

On May 14, my son Willie returned from a Norwegian trip, via Bergen. He had sold over 4,000 webs.

On July 25, we began putting in a new filter which cost about £4,000.

As of August, the buying
of linens from practically all markets, except the home trade, had
stopped. The boiler that we bought on
Forrester's bog in 1889, which had been used for storing hot water for many
years, was taken out.

On August 27, my son Willie was appointed deputy leader of the Senate.

In September, the
following beetling engines were working:

Jubilee 17

Lower

House 12

Mill 13

Road 14

This was a bad
arrangement, as the Jubilee Fall, where 17 engines are working, is the same as
the Lower House. So we are wasting water
for lack of balance.

As of October, the price
of linens was falling seriously. A
quality such as 37-1/2 7x7 30/30 which
cost cost 28d in December 1947 is now quoted at 24d.

As of November, it was
noted that the goods for collar canvas was seriously down. On an average all
linens are down 10% which, in view of our stock and commitments of £1m, will
mean a loss of over £100,000, and there is probably more to follow.

On November 8, the
directors agreed that all departments should stop buying unless absolutely
necessary as we have over a year's supply of goods.

On November 9, a new stenter frame by Mather & Platt, which cost £5,000, started on trial work.

1949

On February 6, Sam
Collins junior joined the office
staff. His father, uncle and sister are
already working for us.

As of February 11, a new
turnover filter had been working for about a month, making a marvellous
improvement in all white goods.

As of mid-February the
Upper House at Moneycarrie had been working for about two months after being
idle for 12 years, and it is doing splendid work. Repairs to a breach in the race
had not yet been completed.

We heard that John
McKendry, who was our foreman finisher in 1880, was now aged 99 and living in
Larne.

In March, second-hand
Thompson dish-ended boilers were bought from Strand Spinning Coy for about
£640, including a self-feeder,
super-heater and valves. Taking it out and bringing it here cost £250.

In June, a new dining
hall was built by the river opposite the factory. Also, at the top of the dams, the aqueduct
trough at Lagan’s was thoroughly overhauled and piers were underpinned. On Boiler House roof, we started putting in
columns and buildings walls for support.

As of July, a new wing
for the factory was practically all finished, and already 16 of the new looms
were working. A house for the heater, at the end of the Dundee Mangle House,
was nearly finished. A great demand for
hollands continues. All the beetling engines in Upperlands, except the Middle
House, for which there was no drive, were working, as were 12 engines at Moneycarrie.

We have been driving
practically all the beetling engines for about two months by oil engines, with
the exception of an odd day, and this is costing about £12 a day.

In August, there was a
spell of very dry weather which extended to the end of September. Since May we
had been forced drive nearly all the beetling engines by oil.

On September 18, Sir
Stafford Cripps announced tonight that the British pound is devalued from $4.03
to $2.80. As Belgium did not devalue the
same day, the immediate effect of this was that spinners and weavers quoted
drastically advanced prices and big orders were cabled from New York. However, Belgium devalued on September 20th,
and prices immediately eased in Belfast.
Large orders came from Robinson for both canvas and household goods.

In early November, the government began building 22 workers' houses at the back of the Boyne Row. The contractor is Taggart of Ballymoney. We now had the new roof of the Boiler House in the Green practically complete and have about 12 automatic looms running in the factory.

The devaluation of the
pound bought us in a great amount of extra business from the USA and Canada. In Winnipeg a demand has sprung up for No. 11743 Linen Buckram, in soft finish, in a variety of colours.

Also in November, a new
Swiss Schweiter weft-winding machine was put in. Two boys at it do the work of
nine girls. About 50 looms were now working in the new wing of the factory. The
Boiler House roof was now almost completed.

Also in November, we
noted great demand from New York for cambrics and a revival of the demand from
Canada for shrunk ducks. Also good demand from the USA (from Associated
Merchandising Corp and others) for 1015HH dress linen with TBL finish. Owing to
shortage of stock we had to refuse an enquiry for 1,000 webs of this cloth.

In December, a serious
accident occurred to the gratings where water was admitted to the Green turbines. Because the boilerman had not cleaned the rack, no water was getting through from the full dam and the whole rack
collapsed. The water drive was lost for four days. The total loss of time and water would be about £50.

1950

On March 7, steam was first
raised in the Thompson boiler in the Green. There was much demand at this time
for our new unshrinkable permanent finish.
We had now got many repeat orders for this finish and had applied for
our patent. Without the patent we were not
protected. This was probably one of the greatest discoveries ever made in the
finishing of linens. It gives an unshrinkable and permanent finish on goods
such as shrunks, dress linens. This finish was known as Upperlands Permanent
Finish.

In May, we heard of the worst flood disaster in Canada for 120 years.

Also in May, at the Lower
House, big repairs were done to the turbine. A new shaft was put in. New metal
tops were put on the cistern leading to the turbine.

On August 1, Jack Robinson, our New York agent, died.

On August 26, the Derry
Central Railway was closed for all traffic except goods traffic between
Magherafelt and Kilrea.

July, August and
September were the wettest months in living memory and much of the corn and
potato crop was ruined.

As of October, our anti-shrink
permanent finish was doing very well. Demand was growing by leaps and bounds
all over the world. My son Brian sold over 2,000 webs on his visit to Denmark
during this month, of which 500 were in the New Finish.

On October 19, a new coal-handling plant started and was a great success.

At the end of October, my
nephew George Clark went out to New York and had a very successful trip. He looked into appointing an agent in
succession to the late Mr Robinson.

In November, we had great
hopes of a baking machine which we expected to start working in the Frame House
during this month. The machine was delivered in July. There was a huge demand for linens all over
the world and every weaving and spinning house was oversold for nine to 12
months.

By November, we had
installed a large number of automatic looms and they were giving great
satisfaction.

From mid-November till
the end of the month there was an alarming advance in the price of linens. For
example the price of 25s tow, which had been available for about 40 shillings
two months earlier, rose to 51-52 shillings.

There was a fierce demand
for goods from all quarters. My son
Brian had a very successful trip to Denmark about the end of October, while my
nephew Alexander and his wife set off on a world tour to visit Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa via Panama.

On December 1, William H
Muir was appointed New York agent.

On December 12, my
brother Doctor Johnny Clark died in Kilrea,

In the week before
Christmas, some 1066 webs came off our factory.

1951

On February 2, owing to a
very serious advance in the price of wool, which has now reached 320d per lb in
Australia, our customers could not get supplies of hair cloth and are ordering
large quantities of shrunk ducks in both
the ordinary and our patent finish.
Goods for hollands are now practically unobtainable and all our engines
at Mullamore, Moneycarrie and half the engines at Upperlands are idle. Prices were soaring daily.

In February, my nephew
Alexander Clark opened many new accounts and sent many good orders from
Australia and New Zealand.

On April 6, my son Willie
Clark and his son Billy left for a trip to Scandinavia.

On April 16, the old
Howden engine started work in the New Engine House.

As of mid-April, there
had been snow almost continuously on the mountains since the end of November.
No corn or potatoes had been planted.

In May, one of the largest
customers in Leeds wrote to us as follows: “We were very glad to get your
invoice for 50 pieces of canvas, ducks and hollands and are pleased to hear
that you have some more of these in looms.
Please send these, or any similar qualities in any width, forward to us
the minute they are ready. Don’t wait to
send us samples or prices. We are
extremely short of these goods at present.”

On May 28, my nephew
Alexander and his wife Dorothy sailed from Freemantle for home after visiting
Australia and New Zealand. Business in Canada and the USA has practically
stopped for the last two weeks owing to the banks’ threat to close on
customers.

As of July, there was a
great stoppage in buying. For the past month hardly an order had come from the
USA or Canada. Some big orders for dress
linens have been cancelled and the other departments also find business
practically dead. My nephew Alexander
reports that the demand for hollands and buckrams had fallen badly in Australia
and New Zealand.

In July, the value of
linens was looking so high that they had practically priced themselves out of
the market. Apart from the lack of
buying in North America, we have had several cancellations from the Tailors
Supply Company. Other departments have
also had cancellations. I have warned so
many times for the last five years of the danger of having too large
commitments and stocks. I am afraid this will now cause a tremendous loss.

The Derry Central Railway
has been closed for about 10 months with the exception of goods traffic from
Magherafelt to Upperlands and Kilrea.
But there were three trains from Magherafelt to Kilrea on the Twelfth
for the Orangemen.

In mid-summer the ceiling
of the Lapping Room and Sample Room was under-sheeted by Smyth Mills of
Belfast, at a cost of about £2,000, to minimize heat loss.

On July 10, we worked out
on the Economisers. We widened out the
flue of the narrow part of the Economisers and had to take out one section of
the Economisers that was leaking badly.

In August, a new steel
and asbestos roof was put over about one-third of the beetling shed at
Mullamore.

As of August, buying of
linens in practically every country in the world had come to a complete
stand-still largely due to woollen prices having dropped by a third as well as
a substantial drop in cottons. Several
firms in Canada and other places have asked us to cancel orders placed in
February. Unfortunately the total stocks
and goods bought by the company (our surplus) were enormous – about £1,600,00 –
and I am afraid if we get many orders cancelled our loss will be very
serious. During the last three years I
have repeatedly pointed out that this catastrophe was bound to come sooner or
later.

On August 1, we placed on
order for building a new recreation club with Messrs Taggart of Ballymoney for
about £10,000. The original estimate was
about £14,000, but the government would only sanction £10,000.

On August 7, foundations
for the new house were cut out and we paved a road in.

In September, a complete
new reinforced concrete floor was put in
the first floor of the old Brown Room.

On September 5, my
grandson Wallace sailed on his first business trip visit to the States and
Canada on the SS Samaria, heading for Quebec along with Mr Williamson. In Canada they found business almost
dead. King had written that never in his
50 years’ experience had he known business to come to such a complete standstill. We had many requests to cancel
orders, but in most cases refused to do so.

In September, there was a
terrible drop in linen prices. Seldom in the long history of the trade had
prices dropped so heavily. Loopbridge’s
quotations received on September 21 showed a drop of up to 5d per yard on 39”
collar canvas, and all other numbers are down in proportion. Buying has completely stopped in practically
every country in the world.

On September 20, we had
our first order for seven weeks. Wallace sent us an order, amounting to 37
webs, from Gauvreau Baudry, Quebec.

As of September 24, business
was so completely at a standstill that Mr Williamson and Wallace were not able
to book more than a few odd pieces in Quebec or Montreal. They went on to Toronto. Prices of 25’s were now down to the region of
about 53/- and the crisis was growing daily.

In October, despite the
gloomy picture in North America, total shipments actually amounted to the
record figure of £167,000. Goods bought, however, came to over £150,000 and to
this must be added wages, coal and many other items.

The most disturbing news
was that Canada and the United States were still practically closed markets and
many of our customers were asking us to put back very large shipments – in one
case over £3,000 for Canada Pad – for 6 to 8 months ahead. I had always forecast that this would happen.

1952

In January, prices of all
linen goods had now fallen drastically.
In one case 37-1/2 5x5 14/14 has fallen by £9 per web, so our loss on
stock and commitments will be enormous. To
make bad worse dozens of customers have cancelled orders. Although the number of webs on order is
drastically reduced, stocks of these goods have greatly increased in the Brown
Room.

We have lost several very
large orders for hollands, owing to the Ulster Weaving Company and others
quoting much lower prices, but the cloth being bought had only about half our
beetling on it. Mr Hanna reported that
he had to traverse off some hollands twice, taking five to seven hours for each
web. I believe equal results could be
obtained by a good calendaring, which would only take 4 to 5 minutes per web
against five to seven hours. I am
convinced that unless we get a cheaper finish we will soon have more beetling
engines idle like Moneycarrie and Mullamore.

As of April 9, there had
been further terrible price reductions.
Unfortunately, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have all ceased
buying. Our Brown Room is full from
floor to ceiling of goods that cost the peak prices and our loss will be
terrible. This shows the terrible
mistake that was made in May 1951 of buying hundreds of pounds worth of goods at peak prices, despite
the decision recorded in the minutes book that we were to buy very sparingly
and after consulting with each other. We
are now only able to work the Lapping Room and Green three days a week and we
have paid off over 60 hands it the Factory.

On April 19, we got a
wire telling us of the death of Alec Stevenson.
He was our oldest agent and has represented us in Glasgow for about 50
years. He was originally a partner in
Hodge & Stevenson’s until Mr Hodge came to us about 1899. Prior to that we were represented in Glasgow
for many years by William Forges.

In May, our Vancouver
agent AM Thomson retired and we appointed Clarence Clark in his place.

On May 24, a record brown
trout, weighing 13lbs was killed in the Small Dam by Harry Douglas Junior.

On May 27, prices were
still falling. Trade had practically come to a stand still all over the
world. We still have about 26,000 webs
in the Brown Room and a total of about 76,000 webs and there will be a loss of
£5 or £6 per web. The sale of Dress Linens and Rayons has
practically ceased. We have not had an
order from U.S.A. for weeks.

On May 29, we put in a
new head sluice at Moneycarrie.

On June 15, a further alarming fall in prices. This week,
there was a sale of 24-3/4 6x6 25/25 at 13d per yard.

In July, the new American
Liner, the United States left New York on a Thursday and passed Ambrose
Lightship early on Monday morning,
having crossed the Atlantic in 3 days, 9 hours, 40 minutes, thus beating
the Queen Mary’s record in 1932 by 10 hours.

On August 26, a Canberra
jet crossed from Aldergrove in Northern
Ireland to Newfoundland and back in less than 12 hours. It left Aldergrove at 6.35 am, arrived about
11, refuelled and flew back to Aldergrove in 3 hours and 26 mins, the shortest
time in which the Atlantic has ever been crossed.

On August 30, my grandson
David Clark started in the firm.

On September 2, a new
British Legion club house opened today and this was celebrated by a large
number of guests.

On September 3, our
cousin A.L Clark died of heart disease at Rosapenna at the age of 85.

On September 25, we had a
visit from our home trade agents. About
20 of them from Bristol to Dundee came first to Belfast, where they were met
and were shown over the City Hall by the Lord Mayor and given drinks. Then they
were taken to the Giant’s Causeway, put up at the Northern Counties Hotel and
arrived here next morning. They saw all
over our works and then we gave them a dinner in our new hall, which I think
they all enjoyed immensely. Many of them
had never been to Upperlands before.

On October 15, there was
a terrible railway accident when the Perth Express to London ran into the rear
of a local train and the Euston-Manchester train plunged into the wreckage of
the other two trains.

In December, a complete
set of 21 copper steam cans was put into the Dundee Mangle House, at a cost of
£1,779.

1953

In January there was a
terrible disaster at Belfast airport when the plane from London, due in at 9 am,
struck a building when landing and went on fire. Some 27 people were killed,
including Thomas Haughton of Cullybackey.
His wife was very seriously injured.

On January 28, a jet
plane flew from England to Australia in 22 hours. The actual flying time wsa 19
hours. The previous best record about three years ago was 45 hours.

On January 31, there was
a terrible shipping disaster off the Northern Irish coast. The Princess Victora
left Stranraer at 7.15 and on leaving Loch Ryan she was hit by a terrible sea
that broke the door and flooded her car deck.
This made the ship helpless and she sank about five miles from Belfast
Lough at about 3 o’clock. Some 132 lives
were lost including Major Maynard Sinclair and Sir Walter Smiles, M.P. This was the worst shipping disaster of its
kind in living memory. The same day and
the next day the whole east coast of England from the Thames to Yorkshire was
flooded, in some cases for 8 miles in.

On March 10, at the
Jubilee beetling engines, one of the gear wheels that connect the oil engine to
the main beetle shaft broke yesterday.
Kane is repairing it and casting a new one.

In March, a small plot of ground belonging to
the company was being delved and planted. This property was bought from the
late Tommy Wright about a year ago and divided up between the company, George
Clark and W.M. Clark.

On June 2, we celebrated
the Coronation. Sports were arranged on the football field and in the evening a
huge bonfire was lit close to the new recreation hall.

Also in June, we beganto add two additional wings to the
original recreation building. Meanwhile work was starting on a hydro-electric
scheme on the Bann. Experimental boring work has been carried on for some weeks
at Carnroe. It was announced that the scheme has been passed and that extensive
work will soon be started.

On September 28, my
nephew George Clark left for Australia. He arrived on October 2 after an
eight-hour delay in Darwin due to engine trouble. Two weeks ago my grandson
Billy Clark flew to Switzerland and France and did some nice business in Paris.

1954

This has been the mildest
winter season for at least 70 years.

On March 13, my dear wife
Alice had a severe stroke.

On March 17, she died,
exactly 56 years after I had first brought her to Ardtara as a beautiful bride.
She had been the star of my life and it is hard to realize that she has now
passed away for ever.

On March 27, my
great-nephew Dennis Clark started in the firm.

In April, we did a big
repair job at the Moneycarrie beetling works. A whole new valley was put in
between the workshop and the beetle house and new concrete sills, with rubber
cushions, were put in under the nine engines, on the side next to the wall.

On May 5 my grandson
Billy Clark obtained three samples of German-made rayon and hair cloth on a
Scandinavian trip. A trial order for 10 webs of heavy cloth was placed with the
factory in June and delivery started in September.

In June, F McWilliam was
appointed the London agent for household goods.

This was the wettest June
in living memory. Total rainfall for the
month was more than three inches. We had floods in the river every few days.

William Beattie, who was
previously our foreman pattern maker but has lived in Canada for 25 years, paid
us a visit. He is now 77 and his wife
about the same.

On June 22, Harry Douglas
died. He had been our foreman tenter for about 40 years.

In October, my nephew
George Clark left London by air for Australia, going via Singapore. He visited our agents in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Auckland
and Wellington. He returned from Sydney
by steamer to London and landed on February 4.

The whole so-called
summer has been the wettest and the worst in living memory. Up to October 1 we had only
used the oil engines at the beetling works two or three days, whereas the old
average for ten years was 67 days annually.

Rainfall was as follows (mm):

January

3.40

February

5.05

March

3.64

April

1.01

May

5.35

June

3.12

July

3.53

August

2.44

September

5.03

October

6.08

November

5.10

December

6.57

Total of the year

50.32

Lavatories and wash
basins were put in at Willie Judge’s Row and several other houses at the
Jubilee. The demand for dress linens in
the USA and Canada has greatly fallen this year and a German product is also
taking the place of elastic canvas to a serious degree. A large number of our beetling engines have
been idle for several years, including the Middle House, the Old End at the
Lower House, the 18 Engines at Moneycarrie and the 14 at Mullamore.

On October 4, the Moneycarrie chimney was demolished by Rainey
of Belfast, for which we paid them £75.
They simply cut a lot of the bricks away until the chimney fell over.

On October 18 we had the
worst flood since 1929. Although it did
no serious damage here, it was almost up to the bridge at the weaving
factory. In Ballymena there was 2 inches
of water in the Braidwater Mill and in Omagh the water was 4 inches deep in the
streets.

On October 20, we were
shocked to hear that William Shields had dropped dead while having lunch with
my nephew George Clark in Leeds. A wee round-faced
man, he been our traveller since 1916 and prior to that he had been for about
five years manager of our Belfast office.
He had originally been with William M. Kirk & Co and had unrivalled
knowledge of the linen business. Despite having reached the ripe old age of 79
he was still taking an active part as traveller up to the day of his death.

On October 30, the most
serious dock strike in England ended and work was due to resume on Monday after
a three-week stoppage. Over 300 ships were held up idle and several had to go
back to Canada with cargoes of three to four thousand tons, because they could
not be emptied. Thousands of tons of all
kinds of perishable goods were rotting on the docks and over 100 motor cards
were awaiting shipment. The strike was
all due to a misunderstanding
about whether overtime was compulsory or otherwise.

On November 20, there was
the heaviest rainfall in Belfast for 50 years.
Over two inches fell in a few hours and many streets were seriously
flooded and traffic held up. Here, we
had as large a flood as that of October 1929 and as we were afraid of the
factory being flooded. My son Tom took the precaution of lowering our dams so
they could absorb any serious flooding.

On November 30, there was
a day of terrible disasters on land, sea and in the air throughout Great
Britain and Ireland. A cargo liner coming from Canada foundered off Cork with a
loss of about 30 lives. The gale off the
coast of Pembroke exceeded 107 miles per hour.
In one case a goods shed was blown down across the railway track. Hundreds
of trees almost came over the bridge at the weaving factory and at Clonmore it
was just like a sea.

In December, there were
extensive experiments with finishes – sanforising etc. – on the new rayon/hair
cloths for medium and lightweight cloth, but a satisfactory finish not produced
until the following spring.

On December 13, we were sorry to hear that Moore
Lodge, which has been in the Moore family (my wife’s family) since 1701, was
going to be sold by auction. In the end the auction did not proceed.

On December 21, we saw
the greatest storm in living memory. There was a terrible hurricane all over
Great Britain and Ireland. Houses were blown down. All shipping was badly held up.

1955

Since early January we
have had the worst weather in living memory.
In Scotland and the Orkneys hundreds of people were starving and had to
be fed from the air by helicopters, all roads being impassable. Sheep were dying in thousands. In Ireland the roads were practically
impassable.

On February 1, my niece
Mary Clark, known as Mary George, died suddenly at Buswell’s Hotel in Dublin.
(She was the daughter of my brother the Reverend George Clark.) My son Willie
went to the funeral.

Number of persons employed by the
firm at 21/01/1955:

Men

Boys

Women

Girls

Total

Factory

46

23

175

244

Office

14

2

22

4

42

Lappers

45

2

31

20

98

Green

86

4

7

97

Beetlers

19

3

22

Carpenters

20

6

26

Loftmen

3

3

Labourers

19

1

20

Foremen

16

16

Directors & Managers

8

8

Staff

23

1

24

TOTALS

299

41

236

24

600

As of February 22, we
were counting the cost of some of the severest blizzards recorded in the
British Isles. In Scotland, all roads and railways were blocked by drifts, they
had to feed the people and animals from the air by helicopter.

On February 24, the bank
rate was raised by 1% today to 4 ½% which is the highest for 23 years.

On March 3, my
great-nephew Aubrey Clark left by air for New York and went on to Auckland via
San Francisco. He visited Australian
agents in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. He sailed home on the SS Arcadia and landed
at London on July 2. He had a very
successful trip considering import restrictions in force at the time.

On March 8, my
great-nephew Dennis Clark started in Manchester office.

On April 2, Mr Brown, who
had been our consulting engineer for 43 years, died.

On April 6, Mr Churchill
resigned and Sir Anthony Eden was appointed in his place.

In May, there was a heavy
coating of snow on all the mountains in Northern Ireland.

On May 6, Parliament was
dissolved; some 80,000 coal miners were on strike.

Also in May, I heard news
of the old Gortin beetling houses. I can remember when there were two beetling
houses at Gortin, about a mile below Moneycarrie. James Doherty told me that there were now
only four engines in each. His father worked there, as did a man called Millar,
who is the father of the Millar who now has a beetling plant near
Castledawson. My uncle John A Clark
worked those Castledawson engines for many years.

On May 28, over 70,000
railway footplate men stopped work. A
general strike of dockers has been going on for a week in London, Liverpool,
Hull and Manchester. Over 200 ships are
lying idle.

On May 30, ministers went
to see the Queen at Balmoral and she declared a state of emergency all over the
country. Both the rail and dock strikes
are still going on and hundreds of thousands of men will be out of employment
next week, owing to the difficulty of getting coal. A fairly good temporary rail service has been
organized, as there are over one thousand loyal drivers still at work. Some of our goods shipped on May 20 are still
lying on the Liverpool docks. Three
Atlantic Liners are held up in Liverpool owing to the strike of the stewards
and other hands.

On June 14, the rail
strike was settled.

On July 4, the dock
strike ended after lasting six weeks. Over 150 Steamers were kept idle in the
different ports and the Queen Mary and several other large liners were held up
for over three weeks.

On July 5, a great heat
was started. When it broke there were awful thunder storms and terrible rain.
At Ascot there was a terrible thunder storm; 29 people were thrown to the ground by lightning and a woman was
killed.

In the second half of
July, we started with full dams and
they have driven all the beetling engines up till Friday July 29. Virtually two weeks of stored water.

On July 21, my nephew
George Wallis Newport Clark died. He had been one of our most efficient directors for over 30 years
and will be greatly missed.

On August 4, an old
company hand, Bob McClintock, died after being at work all day. He came to us
in 1901 as an apprentice under Robert Montgomery and we appointed him foreman
engineer in August 1914, when Montgomery died.
He knew the run of every pipe sewer drain, electric and telephone line
in whole place.

On August 19, my grandson
David Clark sailed on the "Empress of Scotland" for Canada and the USA.

As of August 23, it was possible
to have breakfast in London, lunch in New York, and supper again in London on
the same day. Today a Canberra jet Plane
left London at 7.10 am, was in New York at 3 pm, left half an hour later, and was
back in London that night, having covered a distance of over 6,000 miles.
Average speed on the outward journey (which only took about 6 hours) was over
550 miles per hour. The average speed
for the whole run was 480 miles per hour.

In September, a big
repair job done at the Jubilee beetling house.
A clutch was taken out and repaired, also the shaft. The house was idle for about a month.

We did a very big job
strengthening the bank between the Wee Dam and the river for about 50 yards
above the long weir. We added 8-10 feet
to the thickness of the bank on the dam side.

On September 22, a
terrible hurricane struck the West Indies.

On September 25, my grandson Billy Clark attended the British
Trade Exhibition at Copenhagen. We were
represented on Berrum & Jorck’s stand where our new rayon/hair cloths were
exhibited. Immediate interest was shown
and bulk orders were telephoned from Copenhagen to Upperlands.

On October 14, we started
to put in a new head sluice at Mullamore, but had great difficulty owing to the race being filled up and the
water not getting away.

Also in October, there
was great demand from the USA for 36” 7x7 30/30 linen elastic canvas. Gilmore is taking these goods out in 5 to 10
case lots, also C.B. Martin & Co, New York.

Also in October, we heard
news of awful floods in India and Pakistan, with many villages completely
washed away and thousands of lives were lost.

On October 24, James
Ferguson passed away in the Braid Valley hospital, Ballymena.He originally came to us in 1897 and
acted as my foreman in the construction of the great bank all round the Island
Dam, also the making of Craig’s Dam and the Lapping Room Dam, in addition to
his ordinary work as land steward.

As of November, the
Scandinavian Trade in rayon/hair cloth was increasing monthly and several large
users started giving us their business, preferring us to the German
cloths. This cloth is finished with our
Upperlands Permanent Finish and is taking the place of our old Wool & Hair
and Cotton & Hair qualities, for which cloths the demand has been
practically nil during the past two years.

On November 6, my sister Sarah Sweetnam, widow of the late
Reverend George Sweetnam, rector of Killelagh, died in Portrush at the age of
95.

On November, our cousin
Derek Clark, son of the late Jack Clark of Gravesend, Castledawson, died.

1956

On January 4, at the
Jubilee beetling engines, a new sluice was put in just where the water enters
the turbine pit. We found the old wooden
bean that carries the gable wall of the turbine house absolutely rotten and had
to take it out and renew it with a steel beam.
The whole works had to be driven by oil for 10 days. When doing this job a lot of water overflowed
from the small drain on the top of the bank just below the turbine and brought
down about 100 tons of earth and stones.
We are now putting in a strainer in the pipe to prevent its being choked
again.

On January 5, my nephew
Alexander and his wife Dorothy sailed on the SS Winchester Castle for South
Africa. They appointed J.L. Clark (no blood relation) as our new agents for
Johannesburg with branches throughout South Africa. Turnover was trebled in the
first year, partly due to large orders for Hyron Hair Cloths. They returned on the SS Edinburgh Castle and
landed at Southampton on April 10.

On February 22, my son
Brian left on a trip to South America and the West Indies. He flew to New York
and and from there went to Caracas where he stayed till March 5. He arrived in Jamaica on March 6 and left
there for Haiti on the March 9. After spending two days in ?Santiago he flew to
Havana on March 20, and arrived in New York on March 21. Unfortunately, owing
to a terrible snow storm missed his plane connection for London and had to
remain there until the following day. He
left New York on March 22 and flew at night to London.

On February 27, our
Glasgow agent Don Stevenson died.

On March 29, George
Frazer died. He had been our foreman lapper for about 50 years and originally
came from Kirks. He is succeeded by his son Alfred as foreman lapper.

In April, the superheater
of No. 2 Boiler was fitted with a complete new set of tubes.

Also in April, the Road
Engines turbine was dismantled and completely overhauled. The shaft was found to be very badly worn in
the draught tube bearing and at the stopping gland. The runner was perfect, but the packing strip
ring was worn to a regular knife edge.

On April 5, my grandson
David Clark married Gillian Atkinson at York and the honeymoon was spent in
Majorca.

On May 1, there was a
small fire in the Lower House beetle works. The Maghera Fire Brigade did a splendid job in getting the fire
under control. We received a cheque for
£452 in respect of the damage from the Northern Assurance Company.

On May 15, the home trade
department started selling Rayon & Hair Cloths in South Africa as a result
of my nephew Alexander’s visit, and the product was gradually developing a
considerable trade in the Australian and New Zealand markets.

On May 30, Harry
Jackson Clark died at Ardtara.

His funeral took place on June 1, conducted by
the Reverend Hamilton Swain, BA, DSO, DSC and the address was given by the Lord
Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr R McNeil Boyd.